Chapter 6
Julian threatened to press charges.
His lawyer made the threat.
Julian himself looked uncomfortable when it was said.
Conrad attended the meeting with Rachel.
“You punched my client in the face,” Julian’s attorney said.
“After he reached for me while my son was chained.”
Julian spoke.
“I wasn’t attacking you.”
Conrad looked at him.
“You shoved me in front of fifty people.”
“You came at my mother.”
“I went for the key.”
“You were furious.”
“Yes.”
Conrad did not pretend otherwise.
“I had a good reason.”
Julian looked toward his attorney.
Something passed between them.
Rachel saw it.
After the meeting she said, “They wanted you to deny being angry.”
“Why?”
“Because anger is useful to them.”
Conrad understood.
The garden guests were beginning to provide statements.
Most supported Conrad.
They saw Julian shove him.
Several saw Julian swing first.
But four witnesses remembered Conrad threatening Agatha afterward.
I’ve got a little punishment just for you too.
One interpreted it as a death threat.
Another said he assumed it meant expulsion from the family.
Human witnesses.
Different stories.
Exactly as Nicholas had predicted.
Then Rachel found something in Julian’s emergency acquisition packet.
A legal memorandum discussed Bellafonte Holdings’ continuity clause.
One paragraph addressed a hypothetical scenario where Conrad was arrested or indicted for violence during a family event.
The memo concluded that the continuity committee could assume interim authority pending formal board review.
Conrad read it twice.
“When was this written?”
“Four days before the party.”
His expression changed.
Rachel held up one hand.
“This is extremely suggestive. It is not proof that the incident was staged for that purpose.”
Conrad almost laughed.
“You should print that on your business cards.”
She ignored him.
“What matters is what we do next.”
The normal Bellafonte response would be to make the problem disappear.
Julian would withdraw his complaint.
Guests would be reminded the matter was private.
Estate security records would never leave the family.
Agatha would be punished internally.
The continuity memorandum would remain confidential.
Conrad could preserve control.
That evening he sat beside Elliot’s bed.
The boy was coloring.
One page showed a house.
One showed something that might have been a dinosaur.
Then Elliot drew a long black line around a stick figure.
Conrad’s chest tightened.
“What’s that?”
“Chain.”
“Who is that?”
“Me.”
Conrad looked away for a second.
The company suddenly felt very small.
He knew what he would do next.
His father would have called it reckless.
May you like
Agatha would call it proof that parenthood had made him weak.
Conrad no longer cared.
